the goose loves new recipes

Happy Thursday, Friends!

I think it's time for me to change things up a bit - instead of boring you with ten things on a Tuesday (or Wednesday, since I'm a procrastinator), I'll update you on what we've been cooking/eating recently. That's fun, right? It's really that I didn't want to waste my ten Tuesady things on food items, so I'm sticking them all in the same post. You can drool on your keyboard along with me.

We're trying to be very economical with our shopping and cooking, so we're meal planning every few weeks and then buying the appropriate groceries that will lend themselves to several meals. We're also working through our pantry items and being creative with what's on hand. Of which there's plenty. The idea is that the less we go to the grocery store, the less we spend on groceries. Clever, right?

Probably 10 days ago, we took these things...

added them to these things:

poured this stuff on top:

and came out with this! Salmon mac n cheese. Yes please.

 We use the non-seasoned frozen salmon filets from Costco, and let me just tell you, for a moment, how much those things rock.

They thaw super fast, so if you're one of those people that gets home at 6pm starving, with "nothing" to eat in the house, you can just grab an individually wrapped (sorry environment) piece of salmon from the freezer, stick it in a bowl of warm water while you rip your work clothes off, and then grill it in a pan for about 3 minutes on each side.

Not that I have personal experience here - I always plan ahead for dinner and I'm never that excited to get into sweats and comfy t-shirts immediately when I get home. Right. If only they weren't $25/bag.

The weekend before Easter, I whipped up some mini quiches for breakfast. These are super easy - you basically take whatever meat (optional) and veggies and cheese you have in the fridge and throw them together with some eggs. I like putting them in the mini cupcake tin for bite-size perfection.

Just don't forget to spray your pan with a little PAM action first, lest you pour all your uncooked-quiche-batter-stuff back into the bowl before baking because you forgot to grease the pan, only because you know that if you bake them ungreased, those suckers will never come out of the pan.

Again, not that I have much experience there.

After daydreaming about them for days, I finally made the Pesto Parmesan Scones from How Sweet Eats. And they were as divine as in my dreams. I'm sorry the picture does not do them justice.

They basically taste like buttery pesto clouds from heaven in your mouth. Never knew you wanted that, huh. But now you do.

We ate them with over-medium eggs over fried tomatoes. Two eggs for Billy, one for Lucy.

And finally, we are walking away from our comfort zone to tackle a few of the recipes in the free cookbook we got from UP awhile back. We've already made two of the curries in the book, so we only have about 598 left to choose from. Oh my, so few choices.

Most recently, we made a version of Chicken Vindaloo, which was mostly chicken, vinegar, coconut milk, and spices. We added some craisins for fun. And boy were they fun.

Currently on our food plan, we're targeting a potato-spinach curry, along with a white bean & ham soup to use some of our Easter bounty (yeah, the Easter post is coming soon, I promise) and pasta puttanesca.

Fun fact for you - Wikipedia (the ultimate source of accurate information) points out that literally translated, pasta puttanesca means "whore's style spaghetti", which makes it sound very fun to try. It uses capers, anchovies, olives, garlic, and tomatoes, among other things, which oddly enough, we have on hand. And it actually sounds kind of tasty. So we'll update you on that.

Anybody else making any whore food recently? (Sorry about all the whore-talk, Mom!)

the goose loves pasta carbonara

This was dinner several weeks ago. But it got lost in my photos folder, and I completely forgot to post! So consider this a trip down memory lane, of sorts.

Every week we get a delivery of literally farm-fresh vegetables. Usually we get things we know how to use, like lettuce and carrots and summer squash. But sometimes we get things that throw us for a loop, like dragon's tongue beans and bok choi. I don't even know if I spelled that right.

So for two weeks in a row a few weeks ago, we got fava beans. Fava-what? Yeah, exactly. Well fava beans look like a mix between lima beans and edamame (the Japanese bean). They're in a shell like edamame, but when they come out, they're a brigher version of the lima. Big and green and soft! Pretty tricky to prepare, though - there are about 4 layers of things to remove to get to the good part.

The first week we got fava beans, we made fava bean hummus. Good, but not as good as normal hummus. And the bright green color, although pretty, throws you off.

The second week, we thought of mixing them in pasta. Better idea. We also thought of putting bacon in the pasta. Even BETTER idea! Fava+Bacon=Delicious. But who puts bacon in pasta? Only those Italians (or wanna-be-Italians) that make Carbonara.

It's like pasta for breakfast - bacon and eggs and some other good stuff!
We boiled some penne, to be traditional. Look how fast Billy stirs the pasta!Here he is, at regular speed, showing you some delish penne. Meanwhile, I get the good job of chopping the bacon. I think we had about 4 slices on hand? Mmmm, bacon. Mmmm, penne.

For the sauce, we chopped onions and sauteed them in olive oil with the fava beans. So bright, right?

The garlic, pictured below in our fancy garlic chopper from Billy's dad, was incorporated into the saute above. After everything got nicely browned and translucent, we deglaced with white wine. But not just any white wine - this is a 2007 Vanel Chardonnay, first served at our wedding! (Don't worry, we opened a new bottle of it. Pretty sure white doesn't stay good that long).

And added some freshly chopped basil, also from our farm share.

Mmmm, bacon. And here's the magic - after you have your saucy stuff done, you mix everything together - basil, bacon, saucy stuff, and pasta. Mix well, adding some more good olive oil to make sure things are not dry and clumpy.

And finally, the fun part! Once your pasta has reheated, pour your two scrambled (uncooked) eggs into the pan, and then stir frequently. Make sure your eggs are dispersed and cooking, but not overcooking and getting crusty. Thus concludes your breakfast pasta with fava beans. Easy, right?

For those of you who don't want to measure the ingredients by counting the quantities of noodles and basil leaves in the photos above, here's the general recipe:

Pasta Carbonara, Goose Style (serves two people and two work lunches)

--1/2 lb pasta (any shape will do)

--4 slices bacon, chopped

--1/2 onion, chopped

--1 clove garlic, chopped

--1 cup fava beans from your farm share

--1/2 cup white wine from your wedding

--2 eggs, scrambled but not cooked

--1/4 cup parmesan cheese

--salt/pepper to taste

--fresh basil/parsely for garnishing

--olive oil for cooking

1. Cook pasta, until "all denty," as Billy says. Mix with olive oil to keep from clumping when done.

2. Saute bacon until crispy, remove from pan.

3. Saute onions, fava beans, and garlic, until translucent and smelling good.

4. Deglace with the white wine (broth or water are good too, or skip this step).

5. Add bacon and pasta into pan, mix well until pasta is reheated. Add olive oil to keep from sticking.

6. Add beaten eggs, tossing until eggs are basically set.

7. Add parmesan cheese, tossing lightly.

8. Serve with parm on the side, and basil/parsely on top. (We added our basil in the saute because we like it like that.)

9. Eat